


catch the snitch (before i catch your heart)

by salrob (hanbrough)



Category: High School Musical: The Musical: The Series (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Multi, the one in which ricky and nini are competitive quidditch captains
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-26
Updated: 2020-06-26
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:00:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,382
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24911248
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hanbrough/pseuds/salrob
Summary: It's no secret that despite being a part of the same friend group off the quidditch pitch, Hufflepuff captain Nini Salazar-Roberts and Gryffindor captain Ricky Bowen are mortal enemies. They bicker, argue and fight—from stealing each other's practice times, to challenging each other to midnight duels, it's clear that they just straight up hate each other.Until they don't.--or, the 'ricky and nini are rival quidditch captains' fic nobody asked for
Relationships: Minor or Background Relationship(s), Ricky Bowen/Nini Salazar-Roberts
Comments: 12
Kudos: 90





	catch the snitch (before i catch your heart)

**Author's Note:**

> -sabrina this is for you—you wanted me to write a long form fic for rini so here it is :D  
> -shoutout to chloe for the title idea!  
> -cw underage drinking  
> -even tho hogwarts is obviously in britain, everyone is still american  
> -enjoy the cultural references! also there's a scene pretty much ripped from the 6th book but you didn't hear that from me  
> -a mix of hp canon and traditions that i made up but would probably reasonably exist in-universe?  
> -also i know that a lot of the house sortings seem out of character but since it's quidditch teams i needed to put everyone in either 1 of 2 houses and bc i headcanon nini as a hufflepuff and ricky as a gryffindor those were the only options

It’s 6 AM on a Sunday, and while most people would be sleeping soundly in their beds, Ricky Bowen and Nini Salazar-Roberts are not what you would call “most people.” Instead, they’re standing in the middle of the quidditch pitch, silently glaring at each other while their teammates nervously look on.

“So,” Nini breaks the silence, crossing her arms. “Care to tell me why you’re here? On my field? During my practice time?”

“ _Your_ field?” Ricky’s smile curves into a smirk, and the sight of it makes Nini’s blood boil. “Last I checked, all four house teams played here. Nothing here’s yours, Roberts.”

“Fuck you,” Nini spits, with as much venom as she can muster from her 5’5 stature. “I still booked it! You know the deal - Saturdays are for your team, Sundays are for mine!”

“Ah ah ah,” Ricky tsks, pulling a crumpled piece of parchment from his pocket. “Professor Mazzara gave us permission to make an exception. Just for today,” he adds, voice so sugary it makes Nini want to throw up. 

She snatches the note from his hand, and no matter how much she wishes she couldn’t read, there it is - the Gryffindor Head of House’s wide, loopy signature. A signature that would automatically override any reservation she had made earlier. 

“You and Mazzara can fuck right off,” Nini mutters under her breath, glaring at the ground so she doesn’t have to look at the insufferable expression of triumph on Ricky Bowen’s stupid face. But she concedes defeat - for now - and stomps away, the rest of her team in tow.

She hates it - over the past six years, she’s seen firsthand the favoritism the Gryffindors receive from the professors, the enormous egos they grow as a result of being sorted into the “courageous” house. In contrast, the Hufflepuffs are overlooked, reduced to the “nice” people who let others walk all over them. And yes, they are nice, but Nini knows she and her friends are so much more than that. At the very least, she can take comfort in the fact that her success in class and on the quidditch pitch are 100% earned. Unlike the Gryffindors’, and especially unlike Ricky Bowen’s.

“It’s fine, Neens,” Kourtney tries to reassure her. “We’ll show them when we beat them in the next match.”

“Yeah,” Seb adds. “And on the bright side, it’s three extra hours of sleep I get to catch up on!”

Nini can’t help but smile at that, and since they don't have a field to practice on, she dismisses the team. But as she walks back towards the common room, plans are immediately being formed in her head. Ricky Bowen and the Gryffindor team deserve payback - and they’re going to get it, well before the impending match.

— 

It’s 12 AM on a Wednesday, and Nini has never felt more alive. She creeps down the corridor, Kourtney, Seb, and Carlos in tow, the _Muffliato_ spell securely cast. 

“Look, I know this is a tradition and all,” Kourtney starts, “but can we prank them at a more reasonable hour? I have a Muggle Studies essay due in the morning.”

“But pranking them in the middle of the night is the fun of it!” Nini exclaims. “They’ll never see it coming.”

“You say this as if the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff prank war hasn’t been a thing for years,” Carlos remarks wryly. 

Nini waves away his pointed jab. “Whatever—we’re still doing it.”

Carlos rolls his eyes, but doesn’t push it further. For several minutes, it’s silent, save for the soft thumps of their shoes on the wooden floor; they’re halfway through the path to the Gryffindor common room when Nini abruptly comes to a halt. She throws her arm out and shushes her friends.

“What?” Seb whispers, but his question is answered by the sound of voices. They’re quiet, but echo in the hall anyway. 

“Ricky, are you sure-”

“Yes, Gina, positive-”

“Can you just give it a rest-”

“No, we’re doing this, c’mon-”

“So,” Nini loudly interrupts the argument, pointing her lightened wand at an amused Ricky (and an annoyed Gina), “what are you doing here?”

“I could say the same to you, Roberts,” Ricky retorts, lighting up his own wand, which illuminates the outline of his face. “Out and about in the middle of the night? I could report you for that.”

“And get yourself in trouble too? Please,” Nini rolls her eyes. “You’d never.”

“Wow,” Ricky smirks, putting his hands up in mock defeat. “You got me.”

“Fine,” Nini hisses, wrenching open the door of an unlocked, empty classroom. “So we were both trying to prank each other. Let’s just settle this for once and for all.”

“A duel?” Ricky’s eyes light up. “You know me so well.”

After clearing away the desks and chairs, Ricky and Nini circle each other, wands raised at the ready. She waves goodbye at Gina, Seb, Carlos and Kourtney (who have decided that sticking around for the aftermath isn’t worth it), and then turns back to her opponent in anticipation.

“Locomotor Mortis!” Nini cries, at the same time Ricky yells, “Petrificus Totalus!” The colored jets of magic shooting from their wands end up hitting each other and ricocheting off the wall, leaving a nasty brown stain that drips to the ground.

Much of the duel continues in a similar fashion—they’re equally matched, and expertly dodge each other’s incantations. Nini gnashes her teeth in frustration, and although she’s still not great at it, she tries a nonverbal spell. To her satisfaction, Ricky doesn’t see it coming, and he winces when a small burn stings on the side of his arm. 

But, aside from that one moment of success, neither of them manage to conjure anything else the other can’t see coming. Nini thinks she’s ready to swallow her pride and call it a draw—hey, it’s been almost two hours now, and she does need her beauty rest—when it happens.

Ricky and Nini’s nonverbal spells are cast at the same time, and they just so happen to pick the same incantation. The jets of water spew from their wands, collide into each other, and hit the ground, rising rapidly past ankle level.

“Uhh,” Nini tries not to panic as she looks down at her soaked robe, the water beginning to spill out under the closed door, “what did you do?”

“What did _I_ do?” Ricky snaps. “You cast the same spell as me!”

“Yes, but it’s just a water spell!” Nini cries. “How did you make it flood?”

Ricky ignores her question, throwing open the door and staring in horror at the water, which has splashed down the corridor and woken several portraits up. A knight runs through the adjacent frames, clanging and yelling in concern. 

“Shit,” Nini mutters, “we need to fix this, help me-”

She thinks it can’t get any worse, but of course, with her luck, it does. A loud cackle echoes down the hall, and a certain poltergeist swoops toward them, surveying the flood with glee.

“Students out of bed!” Peeves shouts. “Students in the corridor!”

This is how the worst day of Nini Salazar-Roberts’ life goes down: What was supposed to have been a simple, innocuous duel ends up soaking three different hallways and the Ravenclaw common room. Her favorite pair of pajama pants have been ruined beyond repair. And, along with Ricky Bowen, she sits in front of Professor Mazzara and Professor Jenn, whose normally kind eyes are dark with anger. “100 points from Hufflepuff,” her head of house announces, “with a two-month long detention.”

Professor Mazzara pipes up. “No exceptions.”

—

Word spreads faster than Nini would like, and the next day, pretty much everyone has heard about Ricky and Nini’s dueling fiasco. The Hufflepuffs aren’t happy to learn that their beloved quidditch captain has cost them their lead in the House tournament, and the team isn’t particularly supportive, either.

“What are we supposed to do without our captain during night practices?” Kourtney says irritably. 

“And 100 points?” Carlos chimes in. “Professor Jenn never gets angry—how did you make her mad enough to lose that many points?”

“Can you guys give her a break?” Seb interrupts the bickering, and Nini shoots him a grateful look. “She clearly made a mistake—one that she regrets.”

“What are Mazzara and Jenn even making you guys do, anyway?” Natalie asks. 

“Cleaning out old detention records,” Nini answers, and the team groans in sympathy. 

So yeah, she isn’t exactly excited when she makes her way to the dungeon, ready to get the first day of detention over with. Ricky’s already there when she arrives, his back turned to her.

“You’re doing A-L,” Ricky says flatly, in lieu of a greeting. Without looking at her, he points to the corresponding boxes.

“Got it,” Nini mutters, dropping her bag by the stool and taking a seat. 

The first hour passes by painfully. The room is completely quiet, save for the shuffling of cards as Ricky and Nini decide what records to keep and which records to throw out. Nini braces herself for the increasing possibility that the next two months will be more of this excruciating, awkward silence when Ricky speaks.

“I’m sorry.”

Nini nearly drops the card she’s holding in surprise. “What?”

“I’m sorry,” Ricky repeats, casually crumpling up a notecard and tossing it in the trash. “For taking your Sunday practice.”

“Uh—thanks?” Nini’s never been more confused.

Ricky shrugs. “If I hadn’t taken it, you wouldn’t have wanted to prank me, and we wouldn’t be stuck here for the next two months, looking at 30 year old records.”

“Of course,” Nini rolls her eyes, as the real reason for his apology becomes clear. “Always thinking about how bad it is for you.”

“Somebody has to,” Ricky quips. In response, Nini elbows him in the stomach. “Ow!”

“That’s what you get.” Smugly, Nini turns back to her cards.

They don’t speak for several moments, until Ricky breaks the silence again. “You know,” he says, “it is kind of funny how we both chose to use Aguamenti, when Mazzara only taught it to us a week ago.”

“I’m the best witch in the year, Bowen.” Nini casually tucks a loose strand of hair behind her ear. “It isn’t surprising that I’ve got Aguamenti down pat.” She’d managed to successfully shoot out a stream of water on her second try, and Mazzara had beamed, bringing her up in front of the entire class to demonstrate. 

“Yeah, yeah,” Ricky says dismissively. “We all know you’re a genius.”

“I am, thank you very much,” Nini responds in a self-satisfied sort of way. “I’m surprised you could even get a drop of water out of your wand, much less a whole wave.”

“Hey!” Ricky clutches his chest in mock agony. “It was both of our Aguamentis that caused the flood. I helped.”

“Yeah, ‘helped’,” Nini air quotes. “Helped us get detention, you mean.”

They lock eyes, and just like that, any remaining tension dissipates. They’re giggling, laughing so hard she feels like her chest might burst; the notecards lay abandoned on the table as Ricky grins at her, smirk curling at the corners of his lips.

“I am sorry, though,” Ricky says, once their laughter has died down. “I shouldn’t have taken your Sunday practice.”

“It’s fine,” Nini shrugs. “Based on what I’ve seen at your games, your team needs all the practice it can get.”

“Oh, yeah?” Ricky’s eyes glint with mischief. “We’ll see about that when we kick your ass two months from now.”

Nini grins. “In your dreams.”

As the clock strikes 10 o’clock, marking the end of the first day, she thinks that detention may not be so bad, if the rest of them go anything like this.

—

It’s 9 AM on a Friday, and Nini kind of wants to die. She’s already late to Charms, and shoots an apologetic look at an unamused Professor Mazzara as she hastily slides into the empty seat beside Kourtney.

“What took you so long?” Kourtney mutters. “I thought you said you were only gonna be a few minutes.”

“Got caught up in an assignment,” Nini replies, quickly pulling out her textbooks and squinting at the board, rushing to catch up on the notes. 

Half an hour later, they transition to the practical. “As usual, pick a partner from a different house,” Mazzara reminds them, and Nini turns to look for Ashlyn when a certain overly confident Gryffindor quidditch captain appears in her line of vision.

“Partners?” Ricky asks, and Nini raises an eyebrow.

“Don’t you usually work with Kourtney?” she asks. Ricky looks over her head, and she turns to see Ashlyn pulling on Kourtney’s elbow, gently tugging her to a workbench. She smirks. “Nice.”

“Ash is finally making a move,” Ricky says, with a hint of pride in his tone. “But that means I’m being ditched in the process, so….”

“So I’m stuck with you,” Nini teases. “Got it.”

“Rude.” Ricky leads them to an open workbench. Today’s practical is the Duplication Spell, and Nini opens her textbook, carefully studying the visual. 

“What are you even looking at the picture for? You know it’s just a triangle shape,” Ricky gestures, swinging his arm to form said triangle. 

Nini laughs. “Smooth.”

“I bet I can learn it before you,” Ricky taunts playfully, and she rolls her eyes, not even bothering with a jab in return.

“Geminio!” She waves her wand, and a page of the textbook twitches in response. 

“Nice,” he laughs. 

“As if you can do better,” she scoffs. Ricky holds his arm out, positioning his wand accordingly.

“Geminio!” With three triangular swishes, Nini can’t believe her eyes when her pencil case duplicates.

“What the fuck!” She hisses. “How did you do that on your first try?”

Ricky shrugs. “I just went for it, I guess.”

“Ugh.” Nini closes her eyes, shakes out her stiffness, and holds out her arm again. She swears she’s doing the movement right, but nothing happens, not even a page twitch.

“Here.” Ricky’s voice is patient, and then he’s much closer than she’d expected. Wrapping his hand around her wrist, his body brushes hers as he directs her arm through the strokes. “Be more gentle with it.”

As if on cue, Nini gapes as a copy of her eraser appears on the table. Ricky doesn’t move his hand away, and for a moment, they lock eyes, her heart racing.

“Excellent!” Professor Mazzara’s voice interrupts, and they hastily jump apart. “Did you see that wand work? She’s done it perfectly.”

“Actually, it was all thanks to-” Nini starts, looking at Ricky, but he shakes his head and gestures back at her.

“Let’s see the spell again, Roberts.” Professor Mazzara and the rest of the class are looking at her expectantly, and Nini suddenly feels nervous. Taking a deep breath to steady herself, she goes through the wand movements, reliving the feeling of Ricky’s hand on hers; she watches as a perfect duplicate of Ricky’s pencil materializes out of thin air. 

“Would you look at that!” Professor Mazzara exclaims. He turns to the class. “Your homework is to demonstrate the Duplication Spell on a small object—I’ll be watching for it next class. Dismissed.”

As everyone hurries out the room, Nini’s mind is still stuck on how close she and Ricky had been—how he had graciously let her take the credit. She isn't sure she’ll be able to think coherently for a while, but luckily, her next class isn’t for another forty minutes.

“What are you thinking about?” Kourtney eyes her suspiciously as they head back to the common room. Nini shrugs.

“Nothing important.” 

Because it _isn’t_ important….right?

—

Nini’s in the middle of shuffling through a new pile of notecards on day twelve of detention when Ricky’s loud laugh startles her. 

“What?” she asks crossly. Thanks to Ricky, she’s lost her spot in the pile, and she’s really not in the mood to start again.

“Look at this.” Ricky turns his card over, and Nini can’t believe her eyes when she reads the name at the top.

“What’s my mom’s name doing on here?” Nini says in disbelief as she stares at the words _Carol Roberts_ , neatly written out in block letters. 

“Now we know where you get your troublemaker instincts from,” Ricky teases. 

Nini laughs. “Thanks for giving me something to one-up her with; that’ll finally switch things up for a change.” The second part of her statement is meant to be a joke, but it comes out more bitter than intended. Ricky notices, and furrows his brow. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing,” Nini says quickly, feeling her face heat up. Hastily, she turns back to her pile.

“Nini.” Ricky’s hand is suddenly on top of hers, and she flashes back to learning the Duplication Spell, the gentleness with which he had held her arm. She meets his eye. “What?”

“You can tell me things, you know.” Ricky shrugs. “Or not. But I want to help.”

Nini scoffs. “Don’t think you can with this one, but thanks anyways.”

“Okay,” Ricky says, and he doesn’t push it further, turning back to his notecards. But the ensuing silence feels wrong, sort of like a blanket that’s suffocating. Nini stares at a John Brody and a description of his bathroom prank, but it doesn't fully register in her head.

“They mean well.” The words are out before she can stop herself. Ricky looks up warily, but waits for her to continue.

“It’s just…” Nini takes a deep breath. “My whole family’s in Gryffindor, you know? And it was just….kind of expected that I’d follow in their footsteps. Nobody saw it coming when I was sorted into Hufflepuff. And it’s not that they’re….discriminatory, or anything. But it _is_ awkward, when I’m at home and all they can talk about is how Gryffindor is so great, about all the memories they have at school. It’s almost like nothing I do as a Hufflepuff can ever live up to their love for Gryffindor.”

Ricky doesn’t respond, so she looks up to see a guilty expression on his face. “Ricky?”

“I’m sorry.” His apology comes out in a rush. “I didn’t know you felt that way—and I probably made it worse, with the quidditch team and all.”

“It’s fine,” Nini says. “I _can_ handle your shit talk, Bowen.”

Ricky smiles, but it doesn’t meet his eye. “I was so happy to be sorted into Gryffindor, you know? Especially as a muggle-born who just wanted to fit in. I—I’d read about how they treated muggles and muggle-borns during the war, you know, and….I don’t know, wanted to make a legacy of my own?”

Nini stares, shocked at his explanation; it’s like she’s seeing him in a new light. In a way, they’re two sides of the same coin, and she feels a warmth towards him she’s never felt before. 

“Guess we both have our own sob stories, right?” She says, and Ricky lets out a laugh, his first genuine one since the conversation had begun.

“Yeah,” he says. “I guess we do.”

As they resume shuffling through notecards, Nini feels like a weight has been lifted off both their chests. When detention ends, they part with a new mutual, unspoken understanding between them.

—

Despite being enemies on the field, the Gryffindors and the Hufflepuffs are actually friends off it. They eat breakfast together every day, with a very specific seating arrangement: Nini’s sandwiched between Kourtney and Gina, with Ricky and Big Red on Kourtney’s left. EJ, Seb, Carlos and Ashlyn sit across from them, rounding out the group. It’s been that way since day one of first year, and it hasn't changed since.

Until now, when Ricky slides into Carlos’ designated seat—across from Nini—and she doesn’t bat an eye. “Hey,” he says, ignoring Kourtney and Gina’s expressions of shock. Nini smiles at him as she butters her bread. “Hey.”

“How’d that murtlap essence work?” he asks casually, and everyone’s heads explode as they scramble to figure out when Ricky and Nini had become friends. Wordlessly, Nini shows him her healed wrist, and he grins. 

“What’s going on?” Carlos arrives, surveying his occupied seat in bemusement. 

“Sitting across from Nini today,” Ricky says with his mouth full of chicken, as if he and Nini not arguing was a regular occurrence. “Do you mind, ‘Los?”

“No! No, of course I don’t.” Carlos graciously takes Ricky’s normal seat, exchanging confused looks with the rest of the group.

Their first classes for the day aren’t for another hour, and when Ricky finishes eating, he pulls Nini out of her seat. She follows him without complaint; they don’t hear Seb murmur “What the fuck?”, and they definitely don’t see their friends staring after them, dumbfounded.

“What are we doing today?” Nini asks once they’ve arrived at the Room of Requirement. It’s wide and spacious today, with a smooth hardwood floor, unlike the usual carpentry. She spots a strange-looking contraption leaning against the wall—it’s like a flat board with wheels.

“I still can’t believe we wizards can do actual magic, but we don’t have skateboards,” Ricky mutters. He grabs the object—the skateboard—with one hand, holding a helmet and some knee pads in the other. “Alright, Neens. Today I’ll be teaching you how to skateboard—here’s your safety gear.”

Nini’s insides warm at the nickname, but she manages to keep a straight face. “I have to wear safety gear? We don’t even wear safety gear for Quidditch, and that’s a sport where we literally fly in the sky.”

Ricky laughs. “Well, maybe we should.” He holds out the gear expectantly, and Nini reluctantly straps the helmet to her head and slips on the knee pads.

“Now,” he drops the skateboard on the ground, “you gotta learn how to balance.”

She hesitantly stares at the skateboard, looking so innocent yet mysterious at the same time. Ricky smirks at her. “Scared?”

“Of this?” Nini scoffs, though she can feel her heart rate speed up. “Never.” Cautiously, she places one foot on the board, and startles when it wobbles underneath her. 

“Push off with your other foot,” Ricky tells her, and she does, nearly falling down out of surprise. She doesn’t anticipate the speed of such a small board, and quickly jumps off the skateboard just before it rolls into the wall. 

When she turns around, Ricky’s laughing, and she glares at him. “Sorry!” he says, not looking sorry at all. “That was….a start.”

“Alright, Bowen,” Nini rolls her eyes, “you can tell me it was bad.”

Ricky shakes his head. “It wasn’t, really—don’t be too hard on yourself.” Retrieving the skateboard, he walks back towards her. “Try again.”

This time, Nini has a better idea of what’s going to happen, and when the skateboard starts rolling, she lets the momentum carry her forward.

“That wasn’t so bad, right?” Ricky says as she rolls to a stop. “But it’s more fun when you’re not going in a straight line.” He shows her how to turn, angling his body in the direction he wants to go, the skateboard changing paths in sync. As Nini watches his demonstration, she can’t help but admire the ease with which he skates—how it just comes naturally to him, like quidditch to her. 

Then it’s her turn, and suddenly everything goes a little off-balance; she’s leaning left to navigate when the board buckles underneath her. “Woah!” She stumbles, about to trip into the ground face-first when a strong pair of arms wrap around her, keeping her steady. 

“You okay?” Ricky’s voice is full of concern, and she looks up, feeling a little ridiculous in her knee pads and helmet. Her cheeks burn as she nods. “Yeah.”

With a quick Accio, he summons the board back to her. “Go on, try again.”

Nini’s never been one to back down from a challenge, and her quidditch training kicks in, keeping her alert and balanced. Before long, she’s speeding across the room, shrieking with glee as she expertly turns back and forth. Ricky’s grinning at her, and she thinks she could grow to understand why he loved skateboarding so much. 

“That was fun,” she says, slightly out of breath as she finally comes to a stop, with just ten minutes remaining before class. 

“It was,” Ricky agrees. “And maybe next time, we can skate down the Great Hall when nobody’s looking.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Nini laughs, and she can’t help but realize that she’s really, really looking forward to it.

—

“What’s up with you and Ricky?”

Nini glances up from her essay, the edge of her pencil in her mouth as her brain stumbles to a halt in the middle of her thought process. Furrowing her brow, she sees Kourtney watching her with a strange look on her face. “What?”

“You and Ricky,” Kourtney repeats. She takes a second to measure the length of her parchment, before rolling it up with a self-satisfied sigh. “You don’t hate him anymore.”

“I never hated him,” Nini counters; it’s true, despite what everyone thinks. “But I guess we’re….kind of friends now?”

“Friends.” Kourtney’s voice is tinged with doubt. “After five years of arguing and bickering, you’re all of a sudden friends?”

“Yeah?” It seems like an accurate descriptor of their relationship, anyway. Her mind wanders to the memory of the previous day’s detention, where Ricky had introduced her to something called Ticket to Ride. She had blocked nearly every single track he’d tried to build, and a smile instinctively curls around her face at the recollection of Ricky’s resulting pout.

“See?” Kourtney points at her, and Nini hastily rearranges her face back into a neutral expression. “Nobody’s ever made you smile like that, not even EJ. How did Ricky’s dumb ass do it?”

“We’re just friends!” Nini says defensively, trying (and failing) to reconcentrate on her essay. Luckily, it’s at that moment Gina enters the library and spots them, effectively ending the conversation. But Nini can still feel Kourtney’s inquisitive gaze on her, and she tries not to dwell on it.

Later that day, she makes her way to the quidditch pitch earlier than usual. The Hufflepuffs’ practice isn’t scheduled to start for another fifteen minutes, but she likes to sit in the empty stadium, taking in the fresh air and the cool breeze that gently blows through her ponytail. The sun’s just beginning to set, illuminating the Gryffindor team, who has the field before her, in various shades of red and orange.

Ricky’s running them through a standard training drill, and Nini watches as Gina zips through the sky, expertly intercepting the Quaffle from where EJ’s tossed it and hurling it towards one of the goal posts. Big Red’s ready for it, though, and catches the ball in his hand just before it can cross the hoop. 

Nini has to admit that they’re good. Really good. They’re seamless in their tactics, and it doesn’t hurt that most of them are friends—meaning they’re able to build up that dynamic off the field, too. She can’t help but admire Ricky in particular, who beams at his players with pride before calling it a day. He’s the first to land back on the ground, and lights up when he sees her.

“Nice play up there,” she says, as she makes her way towards him. She pointedly ignores the way EJ, Ashlyn, Gina and Red exchange looks, not-so-subtly slipping away.

Ricky’s lips quirk up into a smile. “Is that an actual compliment I’m hearing from _the_ Nini Salazar-Roberts?”

“In your dreams, hotshot,” she tells him seriously, and he laughs. “More like you just have some really good teammates. That reverse pass Gina threw to EJ? Maybe she should be Captain instead.”

“What about me?” Ricky asks, placing a hand over his heart in mock agony. “What about the way I caught the Snitch right before Red could fly into it?”

Nini pretends to think about it. “Fine—I guess that was okay, too.”

“Just okay?” Ricky pouts. 

“Just okay,” Nini affirms. “Maybe you can upgrade to a ‘decent’ when you catch it looking as cool as Gina does 24/7.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Ricky salutes. “Enjoy your practice, Roberts.” With one last parting smirk and a wave, he turns and leaves for the changing room. She watches him go, a dopey smile on her face, and her eyes definitely don’t move downward, admiring the way his pants cling to his behind.

“What was that?” Nini nearly has a heart attack as Kourtney knocks her out of her reverie. She turns, startled to see that the rest of the team is standing there, eyeing her with a mixture of suspicion and intrigue. 

“Were you….flirting with Ricky?” Carlos asks, before Nini can say anything.

“What?” she laughs nervously. “No—no, course not.”

“It looked like flirting to me,” Kourtney says smugly.

“No!” she insists, her nervousness switching to annoyance. “We weren’t flirting—we’re just friends.”

“Suuuuuure,” Carlos says in a singsong voice. “Whatever you say.”

“Drop it,” Nini says firmly. “Can we practice now?”

“Aye aye captain,” Seb mock-salutes, and the matter is dropped as they kick off from their brooms into the sky. Nini forces Ricky out of her mind as she scours for the elusive Snitch, Seb and Carlos zooming past her as they toss the Quaffle back and forth. 

But hours later, when she’s laying in her four-poster bed and staring up at the ceiling, her mind inevitably drifts back to Ricky. Her skin tingles just thinking about it—their banter back and forth, how easy it was, how they balanced each other out.

Maybe—just maybe—Ricky Bowen isn’t so bad after all.

—

It’s 4 PM on a Saturday, and they’ve just finished three more hours of detention. They’re in the home stretch now, and Nini can’t wait for the tantalizing day of freedom. She picks up her bag, ready to head out, when Ricky speaks.

“Hey,” he says, and she turns to look at him. He’s got an expression on his face that she can’t fully decipher, and she stands, waiting for him to continue. 

Ricky clears his throat. “We’ve got an hour before Hogsmeade closes,” he points out awkwardly. “D’you maybe want to….go together?”

Nini raises her eyebrows. “Go to Hogsmeade?” she repeats. “With you?”

“Well, yeah.” Ricky sounds sheepish. “We’ve just finished detention, and we haven’t done anything fun in a while—”

“Sure.” Ricky’s eyes widen, as if he had expected her to say no. She’s even shocked herself at how much she wants to go. 

(To Hogsmeade. She wants to go to Hogsmeade. She’d be glad to go, with or without Ricky.)

“Alright,” he says, smiling. “Where to first?”

They end up at Zonko’s Joke Shop, perusing the latest arrivals on the shelf. Nini’s drawn towards the packaging of the newest daydream potion, which advertises up to an hour-long daydream of the user’s choice, while Ricky picks up a trick wand. 

“You’re still into those?” Nini wrinkles her nose as he pulls out a handful of Knuts and Sickles, passing them over to the girl at the counter. Ricky shrugs.

“They’re funny,” he says simply, waving the wand. They watch as it transforms into a frog, croaking silently at them before vanishing with a poof.

Nini rolls her eyes. “Well, that was a waste of money.” 

“Oh, come on,” Ricky says. “Live a little.”  
  


Nini’s coming up with a snappy retort when a flash of color catches her eye. Turning around, she can’t help but gasp in delight at what she sees. “Pygmy Puffs!” 

This time, it’s Ricky’s turn to roll his eyes. “And yet you made fun of me for that trick wand.”

“Pygmy Puffs are infinitely superior to fake wands,” Nini tells him. Reaching out, she carefully extracts one of the pygmy puffs out of the cage; its fur is a deep shade of lavender, and she falls in love immediately.

“What should I name him?” Nini asks, carefully balancing the puffskein on her right shoulder. 

“Elton John,” Ricky says seriously, and she looks up, confused. “Who’s that?”

“Who’s Elton—” Ricky takes a deep breath, cutting himself off, before muttering, “Wizards.”

“So, Elton John is a Muggle?” Nini asks. 

“Yeah,” Ricky replies. “A really famous one. I guess it isn’t as funny if you don’t know him, though.”

“Wait,” Nini grins as an idea comes to mind. “We could just call him EJ for short! EJ will never have to know that the pygmy puff he shares a name with was named after a Muggle.”

“You’re a genius,” Ricky says, and then they burst into laughter, giggling until the girl at the counter gives them a dirty look. 

With only half an hour before curfew, The Three Broomsticks is the second and last stop of the day. Ricky manages to snag them a small table in the corner of the pub, and brings over two overflowing mugs of butterbeer. 

“Thanks,” Nini says gratefully, taking a sip and relishing in its familiar sugary flavor. She smiles.

“You have some on your face,” Ricky remarks casually. Leaning towards her, he gently wipes off Nini’s upper lip with the tip of his thumb, then freezes, as if realizing what he’s doing.

“Uh.” Nini’s pretty sure her brain has short-circuited. They stare at each other, eyes wide, before Ricky jerks his thumb away, hastily wiping it on a napkin. “Did you….did you get it?”

“Yep,” Ricky replies, his voice unusually high-pitched. “All gone.”

Nini’s desperate to relieve the awkwardness in the air, and she brings up the first conversation-starter that comes to mind: “How’s quidditch going?”

Ricky looks relieved at the change in topic, and soon they’re caught up in debating the superior offense formation tactics. So caught up, in fact, that they don’t realize it’s 5 o’clock and pouring outside until Madame Rosmerta kindly but firmly gestures for them to leave. 

“Shit,” Nini mutters as they stare at the grey sky, the rain splashing down like bullets. She’s only wearing a thin t-shirt, and wraps Elton John in as much fabric as she can.

“We’ll just have to make a run for it,” Ricky declares, and so they do, shrieking and cursing as they finally reach the entrance to the Great Hall, soaked from head to toe.

“We,” Nini huffs, “are never doing that again.” She looks down at her clothes; her shirt is clinging to her skin, and her jeans grow heavy with the weight of the rainwater. Laughing at the extremely dissatisfied expression on Elton John’s puffskein face, she sends him to her room with a quick Banishing Spell.

Ricky smirks. “It was kind of fun, though.” 

Nini looks up, and suddenly she’s hyper aware of the fact that he’s mere inches away from her. Ricky’s no longer smirking; in fact, he looks nervous—uncertain—scared. Hesitantly, he reaches out to tuck a strand of wet hair behind her ear, and her skin erupts into goosebumps at his touch. They stare at each other silently, and then he’s leaning in and she’s leaning in too—

“What the fuck happened to you two?” Ashlyn’s exclamation pops the fragile bubble of the moment, and they spring apart to see their friends staring at them in disbelief. 

“Nothing!” Nini says, and hates that her British accent gives away the lie. Clearing her throat, she forces herself to enunciate like an American. “Um—we just got caught in the rain, that’s all.”

“Yeah,” Ricky echoes listlessly. “Hogsmeade. Rain. Yeah.”

Kourtney’s staring at them like they’ve gone insane, and maybe they have. But then a sympathetic expression slides onto her face, and she sighs. “Well, let’s at least get you guys dried off.”

Nini sheepishly sticks out her arms as Kourtney performs the Hot-Air Charm, siphoning the water off her clothes and into her wand. She resolutely keeps her gaze away from Ricky, although she can feel his eyes on her as Seb dries him off.

There’s no point in denying it now—she, Nini Salazar-Roberts, has got it bad for Ricky Bowen. But the stability of their relationship had always been reliant on joking quips and arguments, not several almost-kisses in one day.

This is whole new territory, and she’s terrified.

—

They don’t talk about it after that. As if by some mutual unspoken agreement, life goes on—they still fight about Quidditch together, study for exams together, steal food from the kitchen together, but with an undercurrent that neither of them are willing to acknowledge. 

Detention goes on, too—although that’s quickly coming to an end. When the clock strikes four on the 65th day of shuffling notecards and combing through records, there’s a definite air of finality. Although Nini’s looking forward to finally getting her normal routine back, it also feels like she’s losing something important. She can’t fully put her finger on it, but _this_ —three hours of each day guaranteed to spend with Ricky—means something now, something she never would’ve dreamed of two months ago. 

“Look at us,” Ricky says as the last notecard slides into place. “Redoing a 30 year old record keeping system in two months? No wonder we’re the smartest wizards in our year.”

“Yeah,” Nini says softly, unable to come up with a snarky comeback for once. “We did it.” She’s genuinely proud of them, proud of how well they work together. _And we’d work even better together if we_ \- she cuts her brain off before it can finish that sentence. She shouldn’t go there.

Ricky inhales deeply as they exit the dungeon, closing his eyes in satisfaction. “We’re actually done! Freedom has never felt so good.”

“You’re acting like we lived in that basement,” Nini jokes. 

“We kind of did, considering how much time we spent in there,” Ricky counters, and he’s got a point there. Nini shakes her head, but she’s smiling.

By some silent agreement, they make their way to the Great Lake. It’s quieter than usual, with a few students milling about, while others relax underneath the shade or start up a game of Exploding Snap. Finding an unoccupied tree canopy, Ricky and Nini settle down in the grass, taking several minutes just to appreciate the fresh air.

“We should have a picnic,” Nini suggests; her stomach grumbles in agreement. “We didn’t get to eat lunch earlier.”

Ricky agrees, and with some quick summoning spells, they have a mini feast in front of them. Nini spreads out the blanket over the patch of grass they’re sitting on and then quickly piles several slices of steak and kidney pie onto her plate, mouth watering at the sight. 

“You know,” Ricky says as he bites down on a chicken wing, “I’ve never actually fed the giant squid.”

Nini gapes at him after she’s swallowed her food. “What? That’s like the first thing everyone does when they get here.”

“Yeah, well,” Ricky shrugs. “I meant to within the first month of coming here, but then….stuff happened, and for a while, it wasn’t exactly on my list of priorities.”

“What?” Nini’s confused for a second, but then it clicks. “Your parents?”

“Yeah.” Nobody in their friend group really knows what happened, but she remembers it now: For the first few weeks of term, Ricky had been a normal, happy-go-lucky eleven year old. Then, he had gotten a letter one day at breakfast, and proceeded to shut down for three months straight, holed up in his room, never going anywhere except class and meals. It was only after Professor Mazzara spoke to him that Ricky had slowly but surely returned to his normal self, but even now, he doesn’t really like to talk about it. 

“Well,” she says after a brief silence, when it’s clear that Ricky isn’t going to tell her more. “We need to remedy that right now.”

“Oh yeah?” Ricky smirks.

“Yeah,” Nini nods, holding out her hand dramatically. “We can’t have the people knowing that Ricky Bowen, famed Gryffindor Quidditch captain, has never done the number one item on the Hogwarts Bucket List. What will they think of such a betrayal?”

“We certainly can’t let them down,” Ricky teases, playing along. He takes her hand, and she pulls them up, ignoring the way her hand burns in his.

“Here,” she says, handing him some of the leftover bread as they approach the edge of the lake. Ricky tentatively holds the bread slice just above the glimmering surface, and within seconds, a giant tentacle emerges from below, wrapping around the bread before disappearing back under.

“Try throwing the next one to him,” Nini suggests. “That squid loves a challenge.”

“Just like a certain Hufflepuff quidditch captain I know,” Ricky quips, and she elbows him. “Shut up.”

“I bet I could throw this piece of bread further than you,” Ricky declares, and _oh_ , she thinks, _he’s on_. Neither of them have the arm strength and precision of the chasers, but they try anyway. Nini figures they must look ridiculous to anyone on the outside—two teenagers hurling bread across the lake with all their might. But in the end, they’re laughing, and the squid seems to enjoy it too, swimming laps across the lake and gently splashing the water towards them in appreciation.

“That was fun,” she admits, when they’re finally out of bread. The sun is starting to set, and she shivers at the unexpected coolness of the approaching dusk.

“Yeah.” Ricky’s smiling at her like she’s the sun, and it takes all of her willpower to not turn beet-red as she grins back at him.

All in all, it’s a near perfect day.

—

With detention firmly behind her, Nini has never appreciated three hours of her day to do something besides sorting notecards more. The team is equally thrilled to have their captain back at night practice, and they’ve never flown better. With the highly-anticipated Gryffindor vs Hufflepuff match less than a week away, Nini being back on the field is more important than ever.

It’s tradition for the two houses involved in a match to throw a party the weekend before the game, so come Friday night, Nini’s standing in front of the mirror, placing the finishing touches on her makeup. 

“You look hot,” Kourtney remarks. Nini turns to see her best friend holding a crate of firewhisky in one hand and a pair of high heels in the other.

“Thanks,” Nini says, looking at her reflection one last time. She’d decided to go with a blue jumpsuit with tiny white hearts, hair slicked back in a ponytail, and Kourtney’s right - she does look good. Satisfied, she grins at Kourtney. “Let’s go.”

When they exit the common room, Seb and Carlos are already outside, waiting. The four of them then walk the medium-length distance to the Gryffindor common room, where the party is already in full swing. A crappy remix of a Weird Sisters song blasts through a set of magical speakers, and the smell of firewhisky that permeates the air tells Nini it’s going to be that kind of night.

“Hey!” Gina’s the first one to spot them and runs over, excitedly leaning in for a hug. She’s wearing a yellow wool sweater over a black leather skirt, and somehow pulls it off. Nini tells her as much, and Gina laughs. Then Ashlyn joins them, and even more hugs and compliments ensue as they check out each other’s outfits.

“We’ve started a game of drunk Exploding Snap,” Ashlyn tells her, gesturing vaguely to a corner of the room. “Wanna join?”

“Give me a couple minutes?” Nini asks. “I need to do something first.”

“More like do someone first,” Gina mutters, earning an elbow jab from Nini. “Ow!”

Ignoring her friends’ laughter, Nini scans the room, looking for the one person who still hasn’t greeted her yet. She spots him in the back, in the middle of what looks to be a riveting conversation with Big Red, and fueled by an unexpected surge of boldness, starts making her way towards him.

As if he can sense her presence, Ricky turns just as she’s within arm’s length, and his jaw not-so-subtly drops open. For several moments, they stare at each other; out of the corner of her eye, she sees Big Red roll his eyes and slip away.

“Wow.” Ricky breaks the silence, his cheeks reddening. “You look…...really good.”

“Thanks.” A thrill runs through her spine at being able to elicit such a reaction from him, and she’s pleased. “Want to get beaten by me at drunk Exploding Snap?”

The question seems to snap Ricky back to his normal self, and his trademark smirk quickly replaces his previous slack-jawed expression. “Is that a challenge?”

“Maybeeee,” Nini sing-songs. She holds out her hand, and he takes it, grinning. “You’re on, Roberts.”

When they join the group, Ashlyn’s already setting up the second round, with EJ, Gina, Big Red, Kourtney, Seb and Carlos in tow. “Oh good, the lovebirds have decided to join us,” she announces wryly, placing the neatly shuffled card deck on the carpet. Nini rolls her eyes, and Gina hands them their shot glasses.

“You know the rules,” Ashlyn tells them. “Whoever gets the least number of matching pairs has to drink. Are you all ready?”

Everyone nods, and the cards are off, flipping back and forth at an increasingly faster pace. Hands are unnecessarily smacked as everyone scrambles to hit the button that marks a set of cards as identical before one another, trying to get as many pairs before time runs out.

“No!” EJ cries when the deck of cards promptly blows up in his face. His eyebrows are singed, and his plaid shirt is covered in soot. The corner of the room explodes into laughter, and he sighs as he siphones off the grease. “I hate you all.”

The night goes on, and three hours later, Nini thinks she’s at the right level of intoxicated—tipsy, but still relatively conscious of what’s going on around her. After several rounds of drunk Exploding Snap, a disastrous game of Wizard’s Chess, and even a karaoke session, in which she had stunned everyone with a rendition of Celestina Warbeck’s _A Cauldron Full Of Hot, Strong Love_ , she’s ready for a break. She contents herself with settling in a corner of the room, watching Gina levitate Seb and Carlos for the fun of it.

“Hey.” Jolting out of her reverie, Nini watches as Ricky takes a seat next to her, head slumped against the wall. “Whatcha up to?”

“Just thinking,” Nini replies.

“Sickle for your thoughts?” Ricky asks, his gaze piercing. She shrugs.

“I don’t know,” she says honestly. “Right now, I’m thinking that it’s a little loud in here.”

“Well, we can’t have that,” Ricky jokes. “Want to get out of here?” His eyes are sparkling with mirth, and any resistance she could possibly conjure up fades away as soon as he takes her hand. 

They end up in an empty classroom, close to Gryffindor Tower. Ricky holds up a bottle of firewhisky he had managed to steal from the party, and pours out two glasses for the both of them. 

“Better?” He asks, and Nini laughs. “Much.” She lifts the glass to her lips, reveling in the burn of the firewhisky as it slides down her throat.

“You know,” she says after a brief moment of silence, setting her glass down on the ground. “It’s kind of sad, the years of friendship we missed out on, because we were too busy fighting each other.”

“To be fair, I always wanted to be your friend,” Ricky counters, sitting up from where he's laying on the ground. “You’re a hard one to crack, Nini Salazar-Roberts.”

“I -” Nini cuts herself off hesitantly. “Part of it was the Gryffindor thing, I think. You know, how Gryffindors get all the glory while Hufflepuffs get none. But then I got to know everyone on the team, and you’re all really _good_ at Quidditch—you deserved the praise that you got. And I just….I guess I had to take out my resentment on someone, and you were an easy target.”

“Hey, I get it,” Ricky replies gently. “And you’re not the only one who’s to blame—it’s not like I wasn’t fighting back, either.”

“Either way,” Nini shrugs, “it wasn’t fair for me to single you out, and for that, I’m sorry.” 

Her apology hangs in the air, and she looks up to see Ricky much, much closer than she’d anticipated. Her chest tightens; he’s looking at her the same way he’d looked at her after they’d returned from Hogsmeade, soaked from the thunderstorm. This time, he only hesitates for a second before he’s pulling her close, and then his lips are on hers. 

Kissing Ricky Bowen is an experience. He’s a good kisser—a _really_ good kisser—and Nini can’t get enough as she runs her hands through his hair. She instinctively presses herself closer, and relishes in the tiny moan that escapes from the back of his throat. It’s like nothing she’s ever experienced, and she wants _more_.

After a few seconds, or a few minutes, or maybe even a few hours, they finally break apart. Ricky’s gaze is filled with want, but also a little bit of hesitancy. “Is this—is this okay?” he asks. 

“I—” All Nini wants to do is kiss him again, but her head is spinning, and she needs a moment to really think it through. Ricky watches her patiently as she drops her hands from his hair and looks at the ground. “It’s kind of a lot.”

“I get that,” he nods. “But Nini—if you want to, then so do I. You have—” he suddenly looks sheepish. “You have no idea how long I’ve wanted to do that.”

“I want it,” Nini admits softly. “But I also want to take things slow. I….hope you don’t mind if we’re lowkey about it for now. Light and breezy, okay?”

Ricky grins, just glad to have her in any way that he can; then, he’s leaning in to kiss away any remaining doubts from her lips, and she feels like she’s floating on air.

—

All weekend, Nini thinks about the kiss. She thinks about it when she’s eating breakfast with Kourtney the next morning, nursing her hangover; despite her headache, she can’t help but smile at the memory. She doesn’t say anything because of her and Ricky’s agreement to be lowkey, but she thinks Kourtney somehow knows, anyway—she’d not so subtly asked where they had gone off to that night, and Nini had simply answered with a coy smile. She thinks about it during the Hufflepuff team’s final practice before the match, nearly missing the Snitch three times before finally catching it. 

“That white boy better not have you acting like this during the match,” Kourtney reprimands her as they change out of their athletic robes. Nini coughs hastily, jolting out of her daydream. “He won’t!” she insists. 

“I’m happy for you, though,” Kourtney’s voice turns serious. “After all that flirting, you two finally got your heads out of your asses.” Nini gets another coughing fit at her words, and Kourtney pats her on the back sympathetically.

But quidditch has always come first over everything, and by Monday, her competitive edge has returned in full force. She’s ready to destroy the Gryffindors, and marches into the Great Hall with her head held high. 

“Ready to lose, Roberts?” Ricky playfully taunts her, and Nini sticks her tongue out at him. “You wish.” She scans the table, surprised to see someone missing. “Hey, where’s Big Red?”

Ricky grimaces. “He got food poisoning—Adrian’s our replacement for today.”

“That sucks,” Nini sighs sympathetically. She’d been looking forward to playing against her friend, and from the few things she’s heard from Ricky, Adrian’s cockiness and inability to listen to instructions could potentially be a major weakness for the Gryffindors. 

With anticipation and excitement for the game at an all-time high, the stadium’s packed to the brim. A loud cheer arises as the Gryffindor team walks out, followed by a roar at the Hufflepuffs’ entrance. As the captains, Ricky and Nini make their way to each other, offering a final handshake and good luck. _You’re going down_ , he mouths, and Nini grins.

“Ready?” Madame Hooch blows her whistle. “Go!” And then they’re off, soaring in the air, more competitive than ever. 

It’s a close match, with both sides getting in several passes through the goalposts. Nini tunes out the excitement and noise, as she always does, and focuses on looking for the tiny golden ball. For a second, she thinks she sees it flitting by Kourtney’s ear, but then it’s gone as fast as it had come. 

Several minutes pass as she circles just above her team—in her opinion, the best view of the stadium. It’s peaceful and calm, and gives her enough space to do her thing. It’s a no-fail solution; sure enough, she’s spotted the Snitch hovering a few feet from the grass. With a quick kick, she accelerates, speeding towards the ground. It’s liberating, the wind blowing through her hair, with nothing holding her back.

“Oh look!” The commentator, a sixth year Nini recognizes from Potions, exclaims, breaking her concentration. Nini abruptly pulls out of the dive, looking to where the girl is pointing. “The Gryffindor Keeper’s got ahold of one of the Beater’s bats.” 

And sure enough, Adrian, for reasons unknown, has pulled Ashlyn’s bat from her. Even though he’s only a third-year, he appears to be demonstrating how to hit a Bludger towards Carlos, who’s a few feet away.

“Give Ash back the bat and get to the goal posts!” Ricky roars, pelting towards Adrien just as he takes a ferocious, misguided swipe at the Bludger. 

What happens next plays out in slow motion: Nini’s got the Snitch in her grasp, but none of that matters, because the Bludger is zooming towards Ricky faster than he can react. A dull thump as the Bludger hits its target….the wind roaring in her ears as she accelerates, hoping desperately that she can get to him in time…..Ricky, with the wind knocked out of him, falling off his broom from sixty feet in the air….

Then, he lands on the ground, eyes closed, and after that, there’s only silence.

—

When Ricky Bowen opens his eyes, he knows immediately that something is wrong.

For starters, he’s not on his broom, not on the quidditch pitch. Instead, he’s lying in a warm bed, squinting at a lamp throwing a circle of golden light onto a shadowy ceiling. Raising his head awkwardly, he spots a familiar-looking red-head on his left. 

“Nice of you to drop in,” Big Red says, grinning. 

Ricky blinks and looks around, internally groaning as he recognizes the place—the hospital wing. 

“What happened?” he asks, shocked at feeling something thick wrapped around his head.

“Cracked skull,” Madam Pomfrey bustles over, pushing him back against the pillows. “Nothing to worry about, though you will have to stay overnight.” With one last glance over, she shuffles away, probably to get him a healing potion.

“Do you know how much we lost by?” Ricky turns to Red, suddenly remembering the match. His heart sinks; there’s no way the Gryffindors could have won with him out of commission.

“Yeah,” Big Red looks apologetic. “Eighty to two hundred thirty. If it’s any consolation, the rest of the team is furious at Adrian.”

It isn’t, but Ricky sighs, resigned to his fate. Just then, the door of the hospital wing slams open, and he startles. He turns his head to see his entire friend group standing there, but he can only focus on Nini. Nini, whose robes are covered in mud; whose hair has fallen out of her ponytail, loosely framing her face; whose eyes are filled with terror and concern. 

He’s never seen anyone more beautiful. 

“Ricky!” she cries, rushing towards him. Without a moment’s hesitation, she cradles his head in her hands, and then they’re kissing, in front of all their friends.

“Hey,” he says lightly when she finally pulls away, clumsily patting her on the back. 

“Ricky,” she murmurs, pressing her forehead against his. “Thank god you’re okay.”

“We get injured all the time,” he mutters. “No big deal.”

“Excuse me, where’s my kiss?” Big Red’s faux exclamation of indignance reminds them that they’re not alone, and they turn to see their friends wearing a mix of shocked, satisfied, and frustrated expressions. 

“If they had just waited one more day,” Gina mutters, dropping a handful of Galleons into EJ’s waiting palm.

“You bet on us?” Nini asks bemusedly.

“We’ve been betting on you two for six years, dummy,” Big Red pipes up again from his bed. “We had to keep extending the betting pool, since nobody thought it would take this long for you to get your acts together.”

“What.” Ricky and Nini glance at each other, uncertain what to say. 

“Hey, at least you finally got there in the end,” Kourtney shrugs. “We’ll leave you two to it.” In a single-file line, EJ, Gina, Seb, Carlos, Ashlyn and Kourtney shuffle out the door, and Big Red makes a paper-thin excuse to go to the bathroom. It’s just the two of them now, and he smiles at her weakly.

“So,” Ricky says, “that happened.”

“Yeah,” Nini takes a deep breath. “It did.”

“What happened to lowkey?” he asks. “To light and breezy?”

“Screw light and breezy,” Nini declares. As if realizing the magnitude of her statement, she suddenly looks unsure. “Right?”

Ricky grins. “Definitely.” And then she’s kissing him again, and yeah, he isn’t going to be thinking about anything else for a while.

—

This is how the best day of Nini Salazar-Roberts’ life goes down: it’s Ravenclaw vs Hufflepuff—the championship game. The crowd roars when the Hufflepuffs come out, but Nini’s only got eyes for one fan. She locks eyes with Ricky, who, along with the other Gryffindors, is holding giant letters that spell out _Hufflepuff_. He’s holding the last F in the word, and doesn’t realize that it’s turned upside down. She doesn’t really care, though—she’s just happy that he’s there. 

It’s a long and intense match. The Ravenclaw keeper isn’t as good as Kourtney, but Seb and Carlos struggle to dodge the Bludgers that the beaters keep sending their way. Personally, it’s her least favorite kind of game—she loves a challenge, but hates the back and forth scoring pattern. She knows it’s up to her to end the game, and she’s trying. She even flies up to her usual spot, looking for the Snitch, but she can’t see it anywhere. Finally, though—finally, after two hours of hell, Nini spots the elusive ball fluttering near the Hufflepuff goalpost, and she’s off. 

It’s a race between her and the Ravenclaw seeker; the crowd shrieks in excitement to see who can catch it first. But Nini’s natural agility and speed win out, and with one final boost of acceleration, she’s got the Snitch in her grip, its wings beating uselessly against her palm. Madam Hooch’s whistle blows, signaling the end of the match. 

The next thing she knows, she’s swarmed by six other bodies as the Hufflepuffs come together in a mess of hugs, tears, and screams of joy. After all the hard work they’ve put in all year, a tangible result has finally come out of it—the first Hufflepuff win in ten years. Nini may be the hero in her team’s eyes, but she knows that they had only gotten this far together.

It’s even more chaotic when they land on the ground; Professor Jenn is sobbing madly into a Hufflepuff flag, while students from all four houses stream onto the field, hoping to get a glimpse of the newest champions. Madam Hooch is standing off to the side, calmly holding the Quidditch Cup and waiting for the team to settle down so that they can accept their trophy, but Nini knows there is one person she needs to see first.

And there he is—Nini would be able to pick him out of a crowd anywhere. Ricky Bowen, waving his (still) upside down F, running towards her with the biggest grin on his face. She starts running, too, and when he gets close enough, jumps into his arms. The upside down F forgotten, Ricky quickly wraps his arms around her torso to support her, spinning round and round in circles until both of them are dizzy with laughter. 

“You did it,” he says breathlessly, when they break apart. Nini laughs happily. “We did it.” And then she pulls him into a kiss, and everything’s perfect. 

The team awwws loudly, and she flips them off. But there’s also an undercurrent of impatience as they wait for her to finish so they can accept the Quidditch Cup, so she reluctantly breaks the kiss. 

“See you in a minute?” Nini stares into Ricky’s eyes, holding his hand, and he grins. “Don’t worry,” he says softly, “I’m not going anywhere.”

Nini’s hoisted into the air along with the rest of her players, and Madam Hooch announces that it would be an honor to award this year’s Quidditch Cup to the Hufflepuff team, led by Captain Nini Salazar-Roberts. Passing the cup to every member on the team, she’s the last one to get it, and when she holds it in the air, arms outstretched, the crowd goes wild.

Later that day, Nini and Ricky sneak into Jenn’s office to admire it again. They stand side by side, shoulders touching, silently taking it in. If she’s honest, she still can’t fully wrap her head around it—she’s spent so long preparing for this moment that it doesn’t seem fully real. Her entire life had essentially been countless hours of practice, training, and hustle until it had finally culminated in the achievement of her number one dream. But as she stares at the cup, its handles twinkling in the reflection of the glass, she realizes that it’s simply just another object for her to admire.

Why make such a big deal out of it, when the biggest win of her life is standing right next to her?

**Author's Note:**

> -[this is what nini wears to the party](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/2291/3275/files/Screenshot_2020-02-03_at_11.41.47_large.png?v=1581422294)  
> -[this is what gina wears](https://uploads.wornontv.net/2019/11/gina-cropped-fluffy-sweater-leather-skirt.jpg)  
> -shoutout to chloe (again) for suggesting the name elton john <3 you're a genius mwah


End file.
